Madagascar
Plot At the Central Park Zoo, Marty the zebra (Chris Rock) is celebrating his tenth birthday, but longs to see the rest of the world from outside his pampered life at the zoo. Believing that he can find wide-open spaces to run in Connecticut, he gets some tips from the zoo's penguins who are similarly trying to escape the zoo. Marty's friends, Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Melman the Giraffe (David Schwimmer), and Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith), realize Marty's folly and try to follow him. The four of them, along with the penguins (Skipper (Tom McGrath), Kowalski (Chris Miller), Rico (John DiMaggio), and Private (Christopher Knights)) eventually find themselves at Grand Central Station, but are quickly sedated by tranquilizer darts when Alex's attempt to communicate is mistaken for aggression. The zoo, under protest of animal-rights activists, are forced to ship the animals by sea to Kenya. During their travels, the penguins manage to escape and take over the ship, intent on taking it to Antarctica. Their antics on the bridge cause the crates containing Alex, Marty, Melman, and Gloria to fall off the boat and wash ashore on Madagascar. The animals are soon able to regroup, initially believing themselves to be in San Diego, California. Upon exploring, however, they come across a pack of lemurs led by King Julien XIII (Sacha Baron Cohen), and quickly learn of their location. Alex blames Marty for their predicament and attempts to signal for help to get back to civilization, while Marty finds the wild to be exactly what he was looking for, with Gloria and Melman soon joining him in enjoying the island. Alex eventually comes around, though his hunting instincts begin to return due to hunger for meat and after being away from the pampered zoo life for so long. The group is accepted by the lemurs, though King Julien's adviser, Maurice (Cedric the Entertainer), cautions them about Alex being a predator. King Julien ignores Maurice's concerns and persuades the group to help the lemurs fend off the fossa who hunt the lemurs as prey. When Alex begins to turn on his friends and the lemurs, unable to overcome his instincts and hunger, King Julien bans him to the far side of the island with the fossa. Marty begins to regret seeing what Alex has turned into. The penguins, having been to Antarctica and finding it not to their liking, land the boat on Madagascar. Seeing this as a chance to return Alex to New York, Marty, with Gloria and Melman, goes to find Alex but become trapped by the fossa. Alex suddenly appears and approaches Marty as if he were prey, but then turns on the fossa to scare them away from the lemur territory forever, showing Marty he has overcome his predatory nature. The penguins help Alex satisfy his meat craving through sushi instead of steak. As lemurs throw a bon voyage celebration for the foursome, the penguins decide not to break the news that the ship has run out of fuel and that they are still stuck on the island, setting the stage for Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. Songs *I Like to Move It, Move It Online Click here to download full movie *Link #1 *Link #2 IPod users (Download an mp4 version of movie) Click here Behind the scenes *David Schwimmer: Madagascar Voice Interview Trivia *At one point, Madonna, Jennifer Lopez and Gwen Stefani were considered for the voice of Gloria the Hippo before Jada Pinkett Smith signed on. *Harry Gregson-Williams was originally attached as the film's composer, but was replaced by Hans Zimmer. A few weeks earlier, the opposite had occurred for another film: Gregson-Williams replaced Zimmer for the scoring duties of Kingdom of Heaven (2005). *Early on, the plot was based on a group of activists who liberate the animals from their cages. *The penguins originated from a film director Eric Darnell was developing, called "Rockumentary", about a Beatles-like rock quartet. When that project was canceled and Darnell was moved to this movie, he incorporated the penguins into the script, changing them from musicians to military commandos. *The shot of Times Square after Marty asks the police horse for directions prominently features a Hewlett-Packard logo. Hewlett-Packard is the official computer provider for Dreamworks Animation. *None of the main character animals (lion, zebra, giraffe or hippo) are actually housed at the Central Park Zoo. There are penguins. *WILHELM SCREAM: as the large crowd of people come charging up the stairs at Grand Central Station, thinking that Alex is chasing them. *During the scene where "Private" is attempting to gain access to the oil tanker controls, "WHAT A piece OF work IsPenGuin" can been seen on the computer screen behind him. This is a reference to the Shakespeare quote, "What a piece of work is man!" from “Hamlet”. *According to the patch the captain is wearing, the name of the boat is the "S.S. Act II." *Sacha Baron Cohen improvised the line "It's got a gecko on it", and all of the following dialog related to the gecko. The filmmakers found it so funny that they went to the extra work of creating a CG gecko for the shot. *The look of the jungles in Madagascar is based on the paintings of Henri Rousseau. *Melman the giraffe wears tissue boxes on his feet. This is a reference to Howard Hughes who was also a hypochondriac and suffered OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). In his later years, Hughes wore tissue boxes on his feet believing this would keep away germs. *The lead quartet were originally to be a lion, a zebra, a hippo, and an okapi. Melman was changed to a giraffe to make him a more familiar animal. *Jeffrey Katzenberg admitted that he was disappointed with the film's third act. *The airplane that the Lemurs hold court in is a Lockheed Electra, the same airplane as Amelia Earhart disappeared in on July 2, 1937. *Director Tom McGrath based his voice of one of the penguins on the voice of friend and composer Shawn Patterson; known for his Charlton Heston impressions and frequent failed use of the "Jedi mind trick". *When Alex and Marty find each other on the beach and Alex remembers that he is mad at Marty, Marty swears by assigning words to the letters of an acronym. They are "Oh S'ugar '''H'oney 'I'ce 'T'ea. This is very old. *When the camera pans backward from Alex's crate in the ocean, the sea foam around him creates the head of a lion. Foam makes the face, and the absence of foam around that makes the mane. Alex is in the left eye of the face. *The German actor Gerald Schaale is the usual dubbing voice of David Schwimmer, but in the German version of Madagascar he didn't dub Schwimmer's character Melman, but the sweet lemur Mort instead. *In the scene where Marty is inviting Alex to the "'''fun side," you can see behind them the sign H E L P, but after Mary left, the P''' in H E L '''P, was disarranged into a letter L'''. This could possibly refer that Alex's place isn't fun, but '''HELL. *This is the first time King Julien mentioned the "Panzees" name, but then later used in Eclipsed (from the Penguins of Madagascar Series). (ed: Julien is saying "pansies". A "pansy" is defined as "a sissy: a timid man/boy (in this case animal) considered childish or unassertive".) Goofs Revealing mistakes *The crates are stacked on the deck with Gloria's crate at the bottom. The crates all appear to be of the same depth, and when seen from outside they appear to be stacked neatly, but there's still light coming into Gloria's crate from the hole in the top even though the hole should be covered by one of the crates stacked on top of hers. *When the animals have fallen off the ship, the crates go underwater. You expect that the crates will be filled with water, but they are completely dry. Continuity *Orientation of the word 'GIRAFFE' on Melman's crate changes when he uses it for a tombstone. (From parallel to the arrow to perpendicular) *The interior size of Alex's crate varies from when they are stacked on the ship to when he is on the ocean sleeping. Incorrectly regarded as goofs *King Julien wouldn't be a king, he would be Queen Julia. In lemur tribes, it's a matriarchal structure and not a patriarchal. The female lemurs are the ones who lead the tribes and do most of the fighting. However, his right hand man did say he was the self-proclaimed king of the lemurs. *Fossa's are spelled "foosa" in the film. This is actually the way the word is spelled by the natives of Madagascar. *When Skipper asks the talking monkey if he can read, he says that he can't read but Phil can. Earlier on in the film, the talking monkey takes what appears to be a newspaper from a trash can and starts reading it. However, if you look at the newspaper, it is actually a comic. Other Errors *'Errors Made by characters ''(possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When towards the end Marty shows his butt to explain how he knows how much of a pain in the butt Alex is, it is the wrong side of his butt. *'''Errors in geography: The animals take a subway from Central Park to Grand Central Terminal. They are seen on a subway platform on 59th Street and Lexington, which is the correct subway station that you would take from Central Park. However, on the platform, the sign shows the trains 4, 5, and 6 stopping at that stop. At the 59th Street and Lexington station, the 4/5 trains are on a separate platform 5 floors below the platform that stops for the 6 train. There is no one platform with a sign for all three trains to stop. Photos DVD Cover Art Other Photos Category:Episodes